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Healing Trumbo more comfortable at third

Healing Trumbo more comfortable at third

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Mark Trumbo

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TEMPE, Ariz. -- Instead of lazily shagging balls in the outfield while his teammates are taking batting practice, Mark Trumbo has made it a point to position himself at third base at Tempe Diablo Stadium, hoping to field as many hard-hit ground balls off the bat as possible.

Trumbo, who had been recovering from a stress fracture in his right foot throughout the offseason but was recently cleared to run and progress toward full baseball activities, continues to feel comfortable with more intense work at the hot corner.

But it's still tough to simulate game speed, and thus it's tough to read where he is in his adjustment.

"We haven't been able to find out, because he looks fine in some of the baby steps, but his hurdle is going to come when the game comes to full speed, [when the] ball off the bat becomes full speed," manager Mike Scioscia said. "We haven't been able to get close to that because of trying to fit in his rehab. He's done as much as he can, outside of the things that we're going to need him to do to evaluate him. Although those things are encouraging, the test for him is going to be much deeper as he moves on to see if he's going to be a Major League third baseman."

Scioscia has not yet indicated when Trumbo, the Angels' first baseman in 2011, will get in an exhibition game. The Angels open their Cactus League schedule at the Athletics' facility on Monday.